


Economics

by orphan_account



Series: cute stevebucky things [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Library, M/M, Meet-Ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21574390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Steve tried again. “That book, I need it! You- You have had it for three weeks!”“How would you know that?”“I need that book! You’ve been selfish!” Steve said, perhaps a little too loudly due to the glares he got from pedestrians at the table near them.Or Steve really needs a book from the library and Bucky is taking too long to return it.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: cute stevebucky things [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591564
Kudos: 33





	Economics

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so this is just something quick and cute I wanted to write. Hope you like it :)

Ask Steve what the hardest class in college is and he wouldn’t even hesitate to say Economics. ‘What?’ you say, ‘Economics? That seems like such an easy course.’ 

It’s bullshit, is what it is. It’s the hardest course that Steve has ever taken in his third year at the NYU, which he was lucky to get a full scholarship at the age of seventeen. Well, maybe  _ luck  _ isn’t quite the word that Steve would use, he did actually work his ass in high school due to the fact he was very poor and knew his it would be his only way for college. 

Anyway, back to the main topic of the conversation, which in reality isn’t even really the main topic. Economics. The hardest course in the whole world. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration but it has to be up there. It’s not even the same stuff that you did in high school, no, of course not. Now instead of just theories and laws, add in a little complex algebraic formulas and equations and you are just fucked. 

One thing that was just as equally frustrating was books, it seemed like they were buying a new book every semester, which they were and Steve was entirely too broke for that. And of course, his professor refused to accommodate new technology and not allow, just at least, a downloaded version of the book. It had to be the real thing, an actual paperback book that ran for about seventy dollars,  _ amazing _ .

Luckily, Steve must have been kind-of a good person in his previous life because the minute he looked up the book, they had it at the local library near the university. The happy dance he had done couldn’t compare to how he felt now.

“I’m sorry, I just looked online. FIve minutes ago. It was here.”

The library clerk- nineteen, freshman, really doesn’t want to be working here but his daddy stopped funding his credit cards because he is already flunking his first year (really, it’s too easy)- sighed. “Yeah, I’ll say it again. We only had one book and some guy just got it.”

Steve shook his head, clearly exasperated. “I don’t understand.”

“Look, man. I guess we gotta slow things down for you. One book. One man. Got here before you. Grabbed it. Has to return in two weeks, try then.’’

Steve stumbled away for the counter, his ears ringing. This was his only way to pass the class and he damn sure can’t buy the book, not with negative thirty-seven-dollars in his bank account. He let out a loud groan, loud enough for a nearby reader to shush him.

Hours later, Steve was still in a state of despair.

“How about you just go up to the library tomorrow and see if it’s been returned?” Sam- god bless that man, what would Steve do without him (“Die, Steve. You would die without me.”)- said, nursing a beer to his chest. Annoyance was written clear as day on his face, tired of Steve’s hours of complaining. Sam, being the saint he is, had offered to buy the book for Steve, but Steve, being the stubborn ass he is, refused before Sam could get the words out of his mouth. 

“There is no possible way that he returned the book in twenty-four hours,” Steve said- well, more like whined. 

Sam stood up, collecting his empty beer bottles along with Steve’s. “Worth a shot.”

Then the next day, at the same time, Steve arrived at the library, and still no book. 

By the end of the week, Steve was frustrated.

On the tenth day, Steve was impatient.

At the end of the second week, Steve was expectant.

On the fifteenth day, Steve was furious.

“It’s been two weeks! It was supposed to be returned yesterday!” 

The library clerk- this time, a thirty-year-old woman who looked like books were here life- was not taking Steve’s shit. “Sir, this happens all the time. You usually just end up paying a fee. We can’t force anyone to bring a book back.”

Steve settled his fate, he was just supposed to fail, he was supposed to fail and just never graduate and disappoint his mother and-

“You are overreacting. It’s just a book, the test isn’t for another week.” Here they were again, Steve freaking out about the book and Sam nursing him back to happiness with a cold beer. 

Steve gulped down his seem to be fifth beer. “What kind of asshole-excuse me- does that! Like, other people need books too!”

Sam sighed, rubbing his friend’s shoulder. “Let it out.”

Oh, boy, Steve did.

Steve waited until the end of the third week to go back to the library, Sam and him both agreed that it was toxic for him to keep going so much. When he arrived at the library, the first thing he saw was the book. The second thing he saw was the most beautiful man in the world (he was not exaggerating this time). 

Beauty aside, Steve was furious. This was the man who had kept him for studying for the past three weeks, who returns a book late like that?

Steve stormed up to the counter where it seemed the man was counting out bills- for his bill, Steve assumed- the book sitting in arms reach of him. Steve grabbed the book, or at least he thought he had, the man was much quicker than Steve.

“What are you doing?” The man asked- and wow, those lips, if it had been any other circumstance. 

Steve stood there flabbergasted, watching as the man held the book tightly to his chest. “You!”

Oh, no, he didn’t say that… Oh, yes, he did indeed say that. Steve was a certified dumbass.

The man raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at him, a small smirk on his face.

Steve tried again. “That book, I need it! You- You have had it for three weeks!”

“How would you know that?”

“I need that book! You’ve been selfish!” Steve said, perhaps a little too loudly due to the glares he got from pedestrians at the table near them.

The man furrowed his eyebrows, his grip on the book getting tighter. “Sorry, bud, I’m rechecking this book out.”

Steve threw his hands in the air, bewildered. This man had the book for three weeks already and he is checking it out again, great, this is just what Steve needs. He let out a string of curse words before he turned around, heading for the door until he heard a- 

“Hey!”

He turned back around and saw the man approaching him, book still in his grasp. Annoyance filled Steve down to the bone.

“How about we share it?”

Just like that, all the hatred for the man left his body. He stared at the man in shock before his face formed into a small smile. “Really?”

The man nodded, a smile on his face. “Yeah, I mean- I have a test in Economics in a week, and I still don’t understand any of the shit, so yeah.”

Steve found out his name was Bucky a while later.

“I can’t believe you hated me over a book!” Bucky laughed out, pouring the sauce on the noodles.

Steve smiled, walking across the kitchen to where Bucky was and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I know, but still, it was kind of a dick thing for you to do.”

“Steve!”

“Kidding, I’m kidding.” Steve laughed out before returning to their living room, propping his feet on the coffee table, while in the process of knocking off a book.

_ Economics Today: The Micro View _

Oops.


End file.
